Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an anvil assembly for use with a surgical stapling device. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to an anvil assembly and a system for trans-oral delivery of the anvil assembly.
Background of Related Art
Anastomosis is the surgical joining of separate hollow organ sections to allow the sections to communicate with each other. Typically, an anastomosis procedure follows surgery in which a diseased or defective section of hollow tissue is removed and the remaining end sections are to be joined. Depending on the desired anastomosis procedure, the end sections of the hollow organ may be joined using circular, end-to-end, end-to-side, or side-to-side organ reconstruction methods.
In a circular anastomosis procedure, the two ends of the organ sections are joined by means of a surgical stapling instrument which drives a circular array of staples through the organ end sections and cores and removes any overlapping tissue to free a tubular passage. In some applications of a circular anastomosis procedure, an anvil rod having an attached anvil head is mounted to the distal end of a surgical stapling instrument shaft prior to insertion of the instrument into the tissue to be anastomosed. However, in other applications, a detachable anvil rod may be mounted to the instrument subsequent to positioning of the surgical stapling instrument and the anvil assembly within respective tissue sections. In such instances, the surgical stapling instrument and the anvil assembly are separately delivered to the operative site. Each tissue end section is then secured to a respective anvil or staple holding component, e.g., by a purse string suture. The anvil assembly is mounted to the surgical stapling instrument by inserting a mounting portion of the anvil rod within the distal end of the surgical stapling instrument so that a mounting mechanism within the surgical stapling instrument securely engages the anvil rod. Preparation of the tissue sections to be joined and mounting of the anvil rod to the surgical stapling instrument may be performed using minimally invasive surgical techniques, i.e., under laparoscopic guidance.
An anvil assembly delivery system for delivering an anvil assembly trans-orally to a surgical site, e.g., the stomach, is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 8,109,426, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. As described, a guide suture is threaded through openings in the head of the anvil assembly to facilitate trans-oral insertion of the anvil assembly and to allow retrieval of the anvil assembly prior to attachment of the anvil assembly to the surgical stapling instrument. At any point during the stapling procedure, the guide suture may be detached from the anvil assembly by pulling the guide suture back through the openings in the anvil head.
To prevent premature detachment of the guide suture from the anvil assembly during trans-oral insertion, it would be beneficial to have an anvil assembly that is configured such that the guide suture remains attached to the anvil assembly until the stapling procedure is compete, i.e., after the tissue to be anastomosed has been stapled and cut.